Will Pope Francis Inspire LAY Catholics To Be With People In Prisons ? Looking at New Orleans

Pope Francis as a Cardinal made an interesting observation on the clericalisation of the laity . Father Bradley recently posted what thoughts on the matter here just a couple of weeks ago.

“There is a problem, and I’ve said it many times before: the temptation of clericalisation. We priests tend to clericalize the laity. We don’t realize it, but it is like our [clerical state] being contagious. And the laity – not all, but many – ask us on their knees to clericalise them because it’s more comfortable to be an altar server than the protagonist of the way [of life] of the laity. We don’t have to fall into that trap. It is a complicity that is sinful. Neither to clericalise nor to ask to be clericalised. The lay person is a lay person and has to live like a lay person with the strength of baptism, which renders him capable of being leaven of God’s love in society itself, to create and sow hope, to proclaim the faith, not from the pulpit but from his or her daily life. And carrying the cross like we all do. The lay person’s cross, not the priest’s cross. Let the priest carry the priest’s cross. God gave him shoulder enough to bear it”.

As some one that sometimes thinks the Altar looks like a 5 pm Baton Rouge traffic I think I get what he means.

I thought of this when I was reading about how the Archdiocese of New Orleans is really pushing for the Catholic Lay faithful to be involved in Prison work. The Catholic newspaper of the Archdiocese had a nice piece on this at Ministry provides caring presence to inmates .

Pope Francis made some huge headlines when he had Holy Thursday Mass at a youth Prison. I am willing to bet a good many people in Prison work were hoping the Laity might take a cue from this. This is sadly an area for whatever reason many Evangelical and Protestant laity put us to shame.

It's also seem to be something Christ seem to think was very much of the laity's business.